by John Seale
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| Allison addresses a handful of initial students in 2009. |
This is the story of a tiny ministry with a dream. Allison Schlack, who grew up in Dallas, had her heart captured by a slum community in western Kenya. The city of Kisumu had two main slum communities, but one of them had all the charitable investment. The other, Obunga, was mostly known for the local fish industry and the production of dangerous moonshine.
In an interview for a segment on Fox4 KDFW in 2005, a young Allison, holding a child in Obunga, says, “Lord willing, I would love to make this my life’s work.”
Four years later, with the support of friends who had traveled there with her, Allison founded a 501(c)(3) organization called Ndoto, which means “Dream” in Kiswahili. It took almost two years before the organization had any paid employees – she was the first, and a young, uneducated tuk-tuk driver in Obunga, named Joshua, was the second.
But that experience would allow Allison, more than 15 years later, to tell a group of high school graduates in the main hall of Ndoto’s offices in Obunga, “Taking risk is about being willing to step out into uncertainty and trusting that you’ll figure things out. It’s about growth, even when things don’t seem to go as planned.” Joshua, that first Kenyan employee, was there. He now has a college diploma and leads much of Ndoto’s operations.
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| Allison addresses a large group of high school graduates in the same room, but in 2025. |
As Allison prepares to move back to the US this year, after 14 years of living in Kisumu, Ndoto is entering a new chapter. The act of turning over a project to homegrown local leadership is a tremendous victory. Missionaries and community development workers sometimes say that their goal is to work themselves out of a job. When the local staff takes the reins, it means that the organization has reached an incredible milestone.
Ndoto began as a sponsorship organization, removing the financial barriers from students in kindergarten through college while mentoring them. More than 300 students are currently sponsored, and nearly 700 have been educated. A thriving church fellowship followed. A sports ministry has developed, now encompassing 5 soccer teams, a gym with aerobics and weightlifting, and a professional boxing ring, the best in western Kenya, with a thriving boxing club.
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| Ndoto Academy teachers and students at the end of 2024. |
In 2022, Ndoto launched its own private school. Beginning with just a handful of students in three simple classrooms, Ndoto Academy now has more than 125 students across six grades, from preschool to 3rd grade. The school is adding a grade each year up to 9th grade, and at capacity expects to be able to enroll more than 500 students.
Ndoto Academy provides a high-quality Christian education to many students in Obunga and beyond. It also creates numerous jobs—9 so far—and promotes self-sustaining economic development as the school grows into a profitable enterprise. The school also multiplies the impact of Ndoto’s message to young people to dream for themselves and their community. What starts as a small dream can grow to something that changes the lives of many.
